The South African Police Service (SAPS) and the South African Security Association (Sasa) both came out in defence on Thursday of the SAPS’s decision to employ private security companies for guard duties at police premises.
Both were commenting on Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula’s statement earlier this week — in written reply to a parliamentary question — that the police service is spending more than R45-million a year on private security companies.
In a statement on Thursday, SAPS communications head Joseph Ngobeni said the service took a conscious decision in 2001 to use private security companies to guard police premises across the country.
”These duties entail proper access control and the safeguarding of state property and assets at such premises,” he said.
The decision was necessary to release trained members of the SAPS from guard duties, so they could be effectively employed to do police operational duties, thus enhancing service delivery to communities.
”It needs to be emphasised that it is much cheaper and cost-effective to utilise private security services than to use trained police officers for guard duties.
”Currently, 927 private security personnel per day are used annually at a cost of R45-million. Using qualified constables for access control and sergeants for supervision, it would cost the SAPS R61-million to do the same task. As it can be seen, this is a huge saving for the SAPS,” Ngobeni said.
Private security personnel are not trained to perform police duties at all, and therefore they are not and cannot be used to ”protect police officers”.
”It is incorrect, therefore, for anyone to suggest, in the first instance, that private security personnel are there to protect the police, and also to insinuate that by employing security guards, the SAPS robs the community of service delivery.
”On the contrary, the SAPS is committed to serving the communities to the best of its ability, utilising all the resources available,” Ngobeni said.
In another statement, Sasa president Brian Adams said using private security contractors to control access to SAPS buildings is good news for the public, and any criticism of the SAPS in this regard is unfounded, malicious and based on a misunderstanding of the demands of policing the country.
The move has released thousands of police personnel to patrol the streets and operate police stations.
”Guard duty at doors is not what the SAPS should be doing, and it is a waste of valuable resources when South Africa has such a high crime rate.
”Before criticising the SAPS’s decision to use private contractors to do the more mundane work, the public must ask if they want more SAPS members on the street or not,” Adams said. — Sapa